The Edcawber Principle 30 October 2017 at 5:22PM edited 30 November -1 at 12:00AM in Mortgage-Free Wannabe 2.1K replies 235.6K views

Busy_Mee

Glad you are well Ed and things are all going along nicely. Annoying about household expenses, but they always seem to come at the same time.

Suffolk_lass

Busy_Mee said:

Glad you are well Ed and things are all going along nicely. Annoying about household expenses, but they always seem to come at the same time.

Yes, just read poor @beanielou has a leaky fridge now. What with her conservatory too it is all pressure on money isn't it!?

edinburgher

Argh! At the risk of boring SL (who has already heard this story), I just discovered that you're meant to clean and/or replace grease filters on your extractor fan (the metal grilles on the bottom of the hood)! I bought the wrong ones, wasting £15 and didn't discover until I tried to fit the new ones. Unfortunately they're now greasy and wrapperless, so can't go back. I then had to rob the old ones from the bin, spent an hour boiling 8 kettles of water and brushing them with extra strong washing up liquid and they're only just clean enough to risk putting in the dishwasher now

Not how I wanted to spend some of my day off with DD. It wasn't all bad - we watched a forgettable movie together in a deserted cinema this morning (4 people in our row), visited the pet shop and got cake for Mrs E's birthday (Wednesday). I also picked up a nice bottle of sancerre that should be just the thing to accompany takeaway sushi from a nice local-ish place that opened recently (Govanhill must be getting gentrified again)!

Suffolk_lass

Re filters, I'm going to do mine in the dishwasher every time I change the water filter from now on, so it becomes a once every 4 weeks to a month thing. Most of the specialist products are rather yuk in terms of chemicals and nasty aerosols but the Lakeland Oven Mate stuff is meant to be good.

The rest of your day sounds much more the ticket and fun.

edinburgher

The filters actually came out spotless, although we'll see how the dishwasher filter is at the end of the month!

A bonus daddy daughter day today, don't get so many of those any more. DD spent 3 hours running around the park with her wee pal while I helped his dad look after his cute toddler sister

Mrs E taking DD clothes shopping tomorrow, so a bit of a lie in for me and some downtime.

edinburgher

While I was out yesterday a batch of cleaning supplies came from [email protected] - 20l of white vinegar - poor Mrs E! Is anyone else a fan of vinegar for a surface spray, in the mop bucket, cleaning dishwashers etc.? We use it for almost every cleaning chore (that and soda crystals). We buy a specific cleaner for the bathroom, as white vinegar on its own doesn't shift the soap scum from some of the more exotic bathroom products (Lu5h stuff etc.)

This week's other exciting household purchase was vented (plastic) laundry basket from L1dl. It's slightly smaller than our old pop up fabric one, but fits in the gap between the door and the big Kallax storage unit in the spare room. It will hopefully last a lot longer than the fabric ones, which seem to manage about 2 years max. Not bad for £5.99.

A bit of a lazy day today. Doing some of the easy household tasks, but can't really be bothered. Also struggling to summon the energy to exercise, wonder if it's the lack of light at this time of year? I've done the usual round of recycling, clothes and dish washing and the kitchen isn't too filthy. I've also made a lovely batch of ramen stock with some meaty beef bones from Morrisons. It's probably a wee bit more westernised than is strictly necessary (includes tomato puree and porcini mushrooms), but I'm sure the noodle gods will forgive me

Kids regular saver DD has gone out, so we're up to £1,056.01 in savings. I get a pay increment in 5 days, feeling very lucky compared to most.

Have a lovely weekend all.

Suffolk_lass

Even when it is routine, your life reads as really interesting. For me with exercise, I am really hard to get going but then when I do it, I love it and the way it makes me feel. I'm definitely too sedentary at the moment though!

I'm a huge fan of white vinegar and use it as a fabric softener in the washing machine (also reducing limescale build-up) and to de-fur the tap tips and kettle (your water is much softer up there) - it is wonderful stuff. We also use the cheapest cola to remove nasty stick-ons from the toilet cistern and bowl (just leave it before you flush if you are using the cistern lol). I have a little green scrubby kitchen scourer for removing soap scum in the bathroom and finish the inside of the shower with a car glass cleaning spray that means everything runs off it without needing to wipe it down every time, just a quick rinse. I have got a thing of Kilrock cleaner but I'm always reluctant to use it too often because of the caustic smell.

I think our mortgage might have finished this weekend! Nothing in writing yet.

edinburgher

Wow @Suffolk_lass - that's an incredible achievement to casually drop into the conversation!

31 years and 2 months to go for us - things can only get better...

For the most part I agree with you re. life. We're not crazy jet setters, but our life is meaningful and rewarding and that is great (mental note to try and remember this more). Today we managed a trip to Kelvingrove art gallery, which was eerily quiet. I got to see Dali's Christ of St John on the cross in splendid erm, isolation

I have hired a skip to empty our garage next Friday and am now completely brassic. I get paid on Tuesday, but it's all relative as we budget monthly. Today's litany of household tasks was: hoovering, mopping, cleaning the tumble dryer, taking out the recycling, tests for the aquarium (I added floating plants a couple of weeks ago and they are romping, helping to reduce nitrate levels) and giving the aquarium a really thorough clean (ok, technically I did that one yesterday)

Off to figure out where to get £275 from - holiday budget?

Suffolk_lass

No problem with virements here. I have been buying wine and snacks from the entertainment budget all year (and spent the holiday fund on motorhome improvements and going away in it). Good luck with the garage clearance - remember to lift with your legs, not your back! 

Painting (my job) of the kitchen cabinet doors continues here (four coats of white on each side means it is slow progress). Meanwhile DH is making a lectern housing for the gas bottles (no mains gas here!). Apparently creosote takes days to dry when the temperature goes below a certain level (which we obviously reached!). Also, we managed to get the varroa treatment strips out of the hive on Saturday while most of the girls were out foraging or doing their domestic cleaning too. One more day to payday!

edinburgher

Another new word - thanks @Suffolk_lass

I should be ok lifting things, time for my powerlifting (such as it is) to pay off. I've also picked up a cheap reciprocating saw (Screwf1x) and am looking forward to deconstructing broken furniture etc. into more managable chunks It was £35, so I'll probably just donate it to FIL's tool library/massive garage workshop.

The kitchen painting sounds awful! Remind me - are varroa mites?

Big shop finished tonight, also managed to pick up a few items of clothing from the Tu sale for DD, Mrs E has been clearing out her "baby" storage in preparation for building some nice new [email protected] storage for her over the weekend. Overall I think she's losing a tiny bit of storage, but we have some unused cupbard space that can come into play.

Finances looking fairly healthy (all things considered), got paid on Tuesday.